Republicans Putting Their Perks and Pay Before their Constituents

Republicans Vote to Protect Their Perks and Pay. The following is a clarification on Vote #376. Republicans voted against cutting their office budget. Republicans voted against cutting 10% of what they spent on franked mail from their budget. [HR 5882, Vote #376, 6/08/12]

Background: House Republicans voted to pass a plan that ends Medicare, and replaces it with a voucher program for Americans under the age of 55. This would raise seniors’ costs, reduce benefits, and put private insurance companies in charge of seniors’ health care. Under the House Republicans’ proposed voucher system, seniors would lose the Medicare guarantee of a defined set of benefits and instead simply get an increasingly inadequate voucher. According to the nonpartisan CBO, the GOP plan would increase seniors’ out-of-pocket health care costs by more than $6,000 in 2022.

Background: The measure would have prohibited the House of Representatives or the Senate from considering any balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that could result in a reduction in Veterans’ benefits.

Republicans voted to protect his/her own salary during a government shutdown, but voted against the same protections for the troops

Background: This is a result of combining votes on two separate motions to recommit. The first measure would have prevented Members of Congress from receiving basic pay in the event of a government shutdown. The second measure would have ensured that the troops’ pay not be interrupted in the event of a government shutdown.

Republicans voted to protect a loophole that allows Members of Congress to personally collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in agriculture subsidies

Background: The Democratic Budget would have limited the amount that Members of Congress can personally receive in taxpayer-funded agriculture subsidies to $26,955 a year — the same as the limit on outside pay for Members of Congress. (Members already make an annual salary of $174,000.)

Background: The measure would have cut by 10% the official franked mail component of House Members’ office budgets, known as the Member’s Representational Allowance (MRA). Members of Congress waste over $5 million a year using franked mail to send expensive, glossy, self-promotional mailers to their constituents — all at taxpayer expense. Communications can be done electronically, and Members can spend their own money on their glossy, self-promotional mailers.

Background: The measure would have cut by 10% the amount House Members’ spent on franked mail in 2011. Members of Congress waste over $5 million a year using franked mail to send expensive, glossy, self-promotional mailers to their constituents — all at taxpayer expense. Communications can be done electronically, and Members can spend their own money on their glossy, self-promotional mailers.

Background: The measure would have required that none of the funds in the short-term funding resolution (CR) be used to cut or privatize Social Security, reduce Medicare, turn Medicare into a voucher program, or roll back health coverage for seniors.

Background: The measure would have prohibited the Coast Guard from awarding a contract to anyone convicted of fraud or other criminal offenses including embezzlement theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements, tax evasion, violating criminal tax laws, or receiving stolen property.

Background: Republicans voted to protect two egregious earmarks: (1) one earmark for a Canadian highway; and (2) one earmark for a wasteful, multi-billion dollar earmark for the powerful Republican Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus.